


Self-Portrait no.3, Yusuf al-Kaysani

by OldMagpie (MagpieMorality)



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Booker cameo, First Meetings, Implied Sexual Content, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:13:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29819916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagpieMorality/pseuds/OldMagpie
Summary: Booker insists Nicky needs to leave his dorm once in a while and drags him out to a student art exhibit. One piece in particular captures his attention...
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 9
Kudos: 139





	Self-Portrait no.3, Yusuf al-Kaysani

**Author's Note:**

> Short and sweet! Based on a piece of art that could have been Joe, naked but artfully so, leaning on the back of a chair he was sat backwards on, shadows everywhere and expression absolutely captivating. If anyone knows which I mean please let me know so I can link it!!

Booker thinks he's being sneaky when he drags Nicky out of his pokey bedroom and away from his textbooks to the University Gallery. They walk through, pinching little triangles of sandwiches with strange fillings. Nicky strikes out alone to find the toilet for a moment and when he returns Booker grips him by the arm and hauls him away to the side in front of one photograph in particular.

"Enjoy," Booker grins, clapping him on the back and fading into the crowd the way a man that tall should _not_ be able to.

"Wait, what?" Nicky asks no one, thoroughly confused. He glances back at the photo with wary consideration, and shrugs. "At least he's hot."

But no, there's something more to the picture when Nicky looks closer. Maybe it's just his own exhaustion colouring his interpretation or maybe it's wishful thinking, but the man, despite being arched very pleasantly on the chair with those muscles, seems to be weighed down with tiredness. He drapes over it like he's using it to stay up. His head hangs down wearily but he's squinting just a little up towards the camera, watching it from his sprawl. It's probably just Nicky's imagination but even the slight looseness of his legs seems to speak of too long spent standing and the ache hidden in the joints there.

"Most people would be a little too embarrassed to stare at this one for long," a voice drawls nearby, interrupting Nicky's reverie. He realises he's been looking at it for a while, but he's also a little irritated. Can't everyone see the same things he does? And now someone wants to come and say the beautiful picture is just... what? Some kind of soft porn? He glances briefly aside in disgust and clocks a baseball cap and hoodie. Probably a jock brought by a girlfriend then. How annoying.

"Well they shouldn't be," Nicky starts hotly. "It's not like it's a dick pic. This is art! The man in that picture isn't showing us sex, he's showing us so much more if we can only see past the... Perhaps that is the point! He has removed all barriers to our eyes but still no one can see past the skin to the truth. Whoever he is, he's tired, and he's nervous, and he's so alone. This is no closeup, right? All that space around him and he just wants to look out to the photographer."

Dear God, and Nicky can't take his eyes off it. He wonders if it would be weird to consider buying it. _Could_ you buy student art?

"Huh. That's a lot to read from a man in a chair with his clothes off. I guess maybe I'd be too gay to see past that, as you say." Jock brought by his boyfriend then, Nicky mentally amends.

"Oh, _no_. It's not that. I am not straight. He's incredibly attractive. Very hot. Ten out of ten. I mean the muscles? If we only look at the aesthetics of his body then he is, as my friend from America says, a thirst trap."

"Well," the guy continues, rocking on his heels. He lifts the baseball cap off and runs his hand over his curls when Nicky turns to him. Very familiar curls... "Thank you. I work out."

"I can tell," Nicky agrees, slightly dazed. His eyes trail over the model, glancing back to the photo and finding a very amused expression awaiting him afterwards. "I mean, that is..." The model bites his lip and shifts on his feet, coyly looking him over in return. "Heh."

"Joe."

"What? No, I'm Nicky."

"No, me! I'm Joe. But it's good to know your name, Nicky. I don't usually do this but... I could see myself moaning it later, if you catch my drift."

Nicky does a double take in surprise, and then his eyes catch back on that photo. The desperate tiredness and shy longing of it tugs at him. He tries to find it on Joe when he looks at the man, and sees hints here and there of the same exact emotions. The photographer has done an excellent job but Joe was clearly revealing more than he'd expected to be read from it. There's the tiniest nervous tightness around his eyes, and his lips are wide but not relaxed.

For a long couple of seconds they just stare at each other. Joe's false smile fades and Nicky leans imperceptibly closer. It's weird, just seeing someone in this way, especially when he realises he's being seen in return. Joe lifts a hand, tentatively, to Nicky's face and lays the tips of his fingers on his cheek, pressing lightly against the deep bags under Nicky's eye with his thumb. Nicky holds his eyes and when Joe pulls away it feels like they've had an entire conversation, and spent hours naked together already.

"Wow," he whispers. Joe's expression twists and he grabs Nicky's hand desperately.

"You have to come back with me, Nicky, please. I need to-"

"Okay."

"-get you in front of a camera-"

"Anything you want."

"Really?"

Nicky thinks about it, but he's heard of worse kinks and Joe is a model so it's probably just a Thing for him. If they set some ground rules - could be hot. "Yes. But let's go, I don't think I want to look at anything but you for the rest of the night. Truly great art should be appreciated."

Joe drags him off with the same confidence Booker had dragged him in earlier.

After Nicky's done kissing Joe stupid against the door of his apartment they make it to bed. After Nicky's done fucking Joe into the mattress of his creaky bed Joe finally manages to bring up the camera again.

"So, I know you said yes earlier but I'd really love to get you into the studio. The next exhibition isn't for a while but I'm always looking for good subjects and you're amazing, Nicky."

"Wait, it's not a sex thing?"

Joe looks over at him, propping up on his elbow. "A sex thing? What?"

"The camera."

"No! It's- you were pretty adamant that nude photography wasn't sexual earlier in the gallery. Did you change your mind?"

Nicky blinks. Joe blinks. It starts to make sense slowly and he rolls over onto Joe again, leaning down over him. "You're the photographer?"

"I am," Joe smiles.

"But you were in the photo."

"It was a self-portrait exhibit."

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh. You were very nice about my modelling, does my photography not hold up in comparison? Is that a no to the studio?"

"You're the photographer?" Nicky says again. Joe huffs and rolls his eyes. Nicky leans down to kiss him slowly until he relaxes, grinning at him, loose-limbed from satisfaction instead of exhaustion. "Then I need to start my appreciation all over again, for the artist as well as the art."

The next exhibition they attend together, and Nicky drags Booker and their newest friends along to see Joe's work. Their friends complain about having to see the photos of Nicky with only very artfully draped fabric hiding his dick, but he and Joe stand silently in front of it together for a long while, arms around each other's waists. In two years time when they're sharing their first apartment the photo of Joe before Nicky and Nicky after Joe will sit side by side on the mantelpiece as a silent story of their little journey.

If no one ever looks past their bare skin but them then they don't mind. They see enough for the whole world.


End file.
